The Gap
by Claudia Cel'arte
Summary: Sharon was only a 2 year old baby when Harry Potter died, and 14 years after that incident, their offspring was born, sending the wizardry world into a frenzy; however, this story begins way before in the past. Discover the history behind the mystery.
1. Prelude

_Hello. My name is Philippe Potter. I'm a 72 years' old novelist whose career has spawned over five decades worth of books; and although I first began writing at 21 and never stopped since, this is the book everyone has been hoping for for the entirety of my life. In other words, for some people, this is the end of a 72 years' wait. _Can you grasp that?

_Maybe you're just as old as me. Maybe you're half my age, younger or older - truth be told, I don't care, but some of you do, and unless you're a careless teenager or living in a cave, you probably know a few things about me._

_Basically, I'm most famous for being the only son of the late Harry Potter, fact alone which overshadowed all I ever did out of merit and is simultaneously my curse, my blessing and your mystery. Why?, you needn't ask. I was born fourteen years after my father's death, and I was an orphan, just like him. Now, I'm going to give you all of the answers that my mother never did._

_Regarding my mother, her name was Sharon Elizabeth Graham, and she is the starting point of this history._

_This is not a work of fiction._

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**Author's Notes:** Did this prelude make you curious? Then please, tell me about it! :-D I don't intend on continuing this story unless I realize there's demand for it, however small it may be. Readers are my motivation! ^_^

First chapter should come within a week, by the way.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything that is J. K. Rowling's own creation and I bear no monetary purposes. Do not sue me.

~ Cláudia Cel'arte / Aaminah


	2. Ch 1: Before the Boarding School

_Sharon Graham – my mother, that is – was only eleven years old when__ her share of the story began. Previous to this point, she had been just another perfectly innocuous and inconspicuous muggle girl – except for the fact that, of course, she was not a muggle at all. Funnily enough, though, nothing could have come as bigger of a surprise than Sharon's first letter to Hogwarts, and then the second, the third, and all of the following._

_At first, her parents had strongly opposed to the lette__rs, believing them to be a hoax. In their minds, it was already bad enough that their daughter had fell in love with the idea that she might possess magical powers, let alone have something that would further fuel her imagination. As such, they decided to keep it a secret._

_To be fair, m__ost muggle parents are understandably surprised when they first receive a letter from a witchcraft school intended for one of their children, but it's their reactions that truly set them apart. Mr. and Mrs. Graham, in particular, were said to be a very obstinate pair of persons, and while most parents eventually start having second thoughts about their own scepticism after connecting the dots, those two were uncommonly harder to convince. It took a visit from Professor Granger and several generous demonstrations of her own power for the truth to finally sink in. Indeed there was wizardry in the world, and indeed was Sharon a witch in the making. Suddenly, all of those unexplainable occurrences didn't seem so strange anymore…_

_The late professor__ Granger, you should know, was already Deputy Headmistress of Hogwarts at this point, although that was not the reason of her coming. A dearest and very close friend of mine, the aged lady was already by then the only remainder of the "three musketeers", and carried the heavy responsibility of meeting an old friend for the very first time, all by herself. I'm talking, of course, of my mother._

_The young and__ naive Sharon Graham could tell right away there was something eerily unsettling about the way Professor Granger behaved towards herself. Whenever Sharon wasn't looking, she'd promptly feel the weight of Granger's stare on her back; but every time she turned around, Hermione would be looking somewhere else and avoiding direct contact. Other than that, though, Sharon had nothing but nice things to say about the Head Mistress, for Granger had been polite, patient and genuinely impressive in her demonstrations. Her parents, too, had been left with a positive impression of the old lady, and were soon growing used to the idea of Sharon being a witch and leaving them over a boarding school somewhere in Scotland._

_After closely following all of the instructions left by Professor Granger and making all needed arrangements for her trip and stay in the Hogwarts castle, Sharon was left with nothing to do but wait and mark every passing day on a calendar, hoping for the time to fly by; and after what seemed like an eternity, the 1__st__ of September finally came, a lot sooner than Sharon had ever expected._

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**Author's Notes:** The first update came in fairly quickly, so I'm actually quite happy with myself. ^_^

I'm also really happy that I've received my first review from a curious reader already, so my honest thanks go to Julienne Black. I hope this small chapter won't let you down.

Please, if you're a reader and have come this far, don't leave without reviewing! XD I don't need nor want fake praising, even because there's not really much to praise as of yet (in terms of quantity). I just want for people to let me know if they're interested in my 'fic'.

Now, enough with the begging. :-P The second chapter will probably be written from Sharon's own point of view instead of her son's, and don't worry because I'll eventually explain the reason for this. :-) As for the release date, I hope it'll happen within a week.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything that is J. K. Rowling's own creation and I bear no monetary purposes. Do not sue me.

~ Cláudia Cel'arte / Aaminah


	3. Ch 2: Welcome to 2044's Hogwarts

Sharon grasped in awe. The Hogwarts Express had to be, by far, one the definite highlights of her venture, almost even better than going to Diagon Alley and buying all of her school supplies altogether.

Slowly twirling on her feet, mouth slightly agape and trying her best to take in as most as she could, Sharon quickly concluded there wasn't anything even remotely dislikeable about Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, so much that the black-haired girl could easily imagine herself happily exploring her whereabouts for hours to no end, despite it not having that much to explore.

"Impressed, aren't you?," cheerfully asked a girly voice from beside her. Sharon turned around and saw a beautiful blue-eyed blonde girl of about her age joyfully smiling at her.

"Yes", she replied, also smiling, "It's nothing like anything I've ever seen before!"

"Really?" The blonde girl sounded slightly surprised. "It's not really that different from other wizarding places."

"Oh, I wouldn't know. I've only been to Diagon Alley so far!," Sharon embarrassedly admitted.

Blondie seemed excited at that. "So you're a muggle-born?," she asked. "That's so cool! I've never talked to a muggle-born before! Oh, pardon me. I'm Cecilia Malfoy! What's your name?"

"I'm Sharon Graham. Nice to meet you!" Both girls shook their hands, smiling at each other.

"Look, the Hogwarts Express is just about to leave. We really should find ourselves a seat!," suggested Cecilia.

"Oh, you're right!," Sharon said, grabbing her trolley. Cecilia did so as well and both girls made their way to the train.

"You were kind of spacing out over there, weren't you?," Cecilia asked.

"Yes," Sharon replied with a faint giggle. Cecilia gave her a sympathetic laugh.

Already inside the train, it proved to be an utmost impossible task to find a still empty compartment; moreover, since it was both girls' wish to remain together, both tried looking for somewhere else where they could share a seat, eventually settling in for a compartment solely occupied by a doe-eyed girl who introduced herself to be Margaret Marriott, although she was quick to say that she preferred to be called Maggie.

Maggie, as Sharon soon realized, wasn't much of a talker, for the girl kept looking out of the window with a pleasant expression, occasionally gracing them with a timid smile. On the other hand, though, it didn't take long for Cecilia to resume conversation, and Sharon was pleased to find out she had much to share about herself and her upbringing as a witch.

Cecilia was, apparently, the latest addition to the Malfoy clan, a very old line of wealthy pure-blood wizards who prided themselves in being Slytherin students, and since Sharon didn't know what it was to be a pure-blood nor a Slytherin student, Cecilia told her all about blood status and the houses of Hogwarts, also eagerly adding that, unlike her peers, she didn't believe in distinctions of blood, though she did intend to belong to Slytherin so she'd make her family proud.

Among the many things Cecilia merrily mentioned, Margaret seemed particularly interested in knowing that she suffered from dyslexia and had been thought to be intellectually retarded before her parents were properly educated about her condition. As Cecilia explained, she was especially excited about going to Hogwarts because, for a while, she had been supposed to attend the Fireball Academy for Severe Learning Disabilities, and after being sheltered for so long, she was very much glad for the opportunity of being by herself, meeting new people by herself and doing everything else by herself.

Sharon was fascinated, as well as Margaret.

After a while, due to Cecilia seeking for input of them, both Sharon and Maggie shortly told of themselves, after which the conversation drifted along to other subjects; and when the witch pushing a tea trolley came, all of the three girls served themselves with generous portions of varied sweets, each of them acquiring a different sort and sharing it with the others, as suggested be done by Maggie.

Soon enough, it was time to change into the school robes.

As Hogsmeade Station got closer, Sharon tried several peeps out of the window, bursting with curiosity. To her dismay, however, the dark of night and increasingly worse weather made it particularly hard to distinguish anything on the outside save for the hard pouring rain that was pushed by the wind and kept knocking on the glass like small pebbles.

"Aren't you excited?," Cecilia asked, brimming with joy. "I certainly am!"

"I'm excited as well," Sharon replied. "This is everything so new!"

"I know, right?," the former said. Margaret simply smiled in contentment.

"I think we're about to stop", she said after a few seconds, tensioning up as she felt the train get slower. Right away, a voice was heard trough the walls: "We'll arrive in Hogsmeade within five minutes. Please get ready to leave and make sure all your luggage is secure and unopened. We'll later bring it to the castle".

"Does that mean we're supposed to just leave it here?," Sharon asked.

"Yeah, they'll take care of it for us," Cecilia explained.

"Who?," enquired Margaret.

"I don't know," replied Cecilia with a shrug. "Probably magic or… _something._"

The train stopped and the girls went to join in the large crowd of students that was already forming in the corridors. Cecilia suggested they held their hands so as to not get lost from each other, and so they did. Finally making their way to the doors, they descended onto a small badly lit platform.

Out into the night, the students found themselves shivering due to the cold weather. A loud female voice was then heard, "All first-years to me! Come, children, come! First-years only! You're not a first-year, Wilson, _get out_!" Sharon caught sight of a tall sand-haired boy, presumably Wilson, slowly walking away while chuckling to himself. She saw him join a group a boys who kept moving alongside the older-looking teens.

Cecilia then pushed her hand and they followed the other kids their age with Sharon pushing Maggie's. The path they were crossing was so gloomy and thin that the female voice from before kept shouting instructions of caution to all of the first-years. "Watch out the thistles… Beware the ridges on the land… Don't walk too fast, you don't want to slip, trip and fall, do you? Ok., here we come…" They turned a curve and faced the castle in front of the lake. Exclamations of amazement were immediately heard from the students.

"It's so pretty!," said a dumbfounded Sharon.

"I know! It's even prettier than the Malfoy Manor!," Cecilia excitedly told, to which Maggie shot her a look of curiosity.

"**Now, listen to me**," demanded the woman, "There are a few dozen boats over here which we must all sail to get to the castle. They're bewitched to work by themselves, however, they're a little frail, so I don't want to see any more than four students per boat. Did you understand me? **Four students per boat**, I said!"

Looking out for the voice, Sharon saw a beautiful fair-looking lady and their gazes met. "You three, come with me," was her command, to which the three followed swiftly.

Travelling by boat was, thankfully to Sharon, an uneventful experience. Everyone kept in silence, but while most students took the chance to observe their surroundings, Sharon decided to observe the lady instead, only stopping when it became too obvious that she had been caught staring. Sharon felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment and turned to study the castle, finding it to be a terrific distraction.

They soon met their destination and proceeded to walk through the rest of the way. Hogwarts' gates were opened to reveal a softly smiling Professor Granger who had been waiting for them.

"Thanks, Helena, I'll take them from here," she said.

"Always at your service…," Helena said, subsequently parting ways. Sharon was so astounded by the castle that she didn't even notice her leaving.

Without delay, Professor Granger took them down the pavement into a secluded room. Here, the elder lady proceeded to take a long look at the children and, once again, Sharon felt the weight of her stare on her, lasting for a little longer than she'd have liked. This time meeting her gaze, though, Sharon saw as Professor Granger's eyes jumped from hers to Cecilia's face, widening as an expression of surprise briefly took control of her face as if she had just seen something that she had long ago forgotten about. Cecilia never had time to notice and, quickly enough, Professor Granger was back to her normal state.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," she said, "I'm Professor Hermione Granger".

After quickly summing up the house selection process and the general main points regarding each house of Hogwarts, Granger left the room and the students had some time to deliberate.

"I'm so nervous," Cecilia confessed, "I'm supposed to belong to Slytherin…"

"Don't worry, you will," Maggie assured her with a pat on the shoulder.

"Why is it so important to belong to a certain house?," Sharon asked.

"Ideally, it isn't…" Cecilia explained. "You're sorted into the house that fits you best. It's just that my family takes a really big pride in being a _certain_ way…"

Sharon still did not understand. "What do you mean?"

"Oh, it doesn't matter…" Cecilia said, faintly smiling. She looked increasingly sick, very different from before. "It'd be really nice if at least one of you was in Slytherin as well", she tentatively added.

Margaret didn't look too pleased at that idea. "Well, as you said, one is sorted into the house that fits him best…," she uncomfortably replied.

Cecilia looked miserable. She shot Sharon a pleading look and Sharon, feeling bewildered and disheartened, grabbed her hand in a reassuring motion.

After a while, Professor Granger came back, instructing the students to form a line and carefully checking on it. When she decided they were ready to leave, she took them from the secluded room into the Great Hall, where Sharon's mouth hung open in pure amazement at how big and beautiful the whole place was. The night sky-like ceiling, she noticed, was particularly impressive. Nevertheless, the Great Hall didn't have any shortage of interesting things to wonder at and Sharon could only hope that they'd get back there more often so she'd see more of it.

Still in line, the first-years were displaced facing the remaining body of students and standing opposite to the school staff table. All eyes were focused on the newcomers and Sharon felt suddenly very small.

Fortunately, Professor Granger was back to distract her, placing a wooden chair in front of the line. She was carrying a ragged black hat which she then put on top of the chair.

"That's the sorting hat I told you about," Cecilia whispered, "You're going to put that on top of your head."

Sharon felt disgusted. "That dirty thing??"

"Sssh", someone said. Sharon and Cecilia exchanged amused looks, but Sharon worriedly noticed that the Malfoy inheritor seemed even paler than before.

Eventually, the hall fell into deep silence and everyone paid close attention to the hat. After a few seconds it finally started to sing.

It didn't very take long for the students to start exchanging puzzled looks within themselves. What they were listening to was basically a song about several kinds of hats that the sorting hat felt were very inferior to him, his history as a sorting hat and how important it was to have a sorting hat like him to judge and to see what others could not perceive. Near the end of the song, there was a brief reference to the Hogwarts houses and then an awkward silence filled the room for many seconds. Professor Granger looked outraged. Somehow, Sharon got the impression that that wasn't exactly the song everyone had been waiting for…

"LONG LIVE THE SORTING HAT!," someone yelled from one of the tables, and laughter ensued. People started applauding and the sorting hat bowed to each one of the tables. The ice had been broken.

Holding a big parchment scroll in her hands, Professor Granger began to talk, "The house selection process is about to begin. As soon as I call your name sit in the chair and put the hat in your head, please."

"Abberley, Susan!," she called.

Susan Abberley was a tall overly-skinny girl with a nose so hooked that it made her look like a parrot. It took less than one second for the hat to decide which house she'd be in. "SLYTHERIN!," he said, and the Slytherin table cheered in celebration.

"Alonzo, Samuel"

This one took a little longer. "HUFFLEPUFF!," said the hat, after which the Hufflepuff table commemorated for they new member.

"Biggers, Bianca!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

And after a while…

"Graham, Sharon!"

Putting a piece of hair behind her ear, Sharon made her way onto the chair. It was very embarrassing to sit in front of the whole school and have part of your future spitted out like that, but nonetheless, she had to do it, so she put the hat on and sat down, taking a deep breath.

"Hey, it's you!," said a voice inside her head. "I'd been wondering when you'd get back!"

Sharon was puzzled. "Excuse me… have we met?"

"But of course! Don't worry, though, it's not like you can remember. Anyway, I'm very excited for you! I reckon Gryffindor would be a good choice?"

"Not Gryffindor… Slytherin, please!"

The hat seemed surprised. "Slytherin? Why?"

Cecilia came to her mind.

"Oh no, missy, no way! I can't put you in Slytherin out of pity! I'm sorry, but there's not an ounce of you that'd belong to Slytherin. Why don't you go to Gryffindor instead?"

"Because she's going to be a Slytherin and I heard they don't get along!"

"That's nonsense!"

"Please!," Sharon pleaded.

"But… Oh well, I guess it's ok. Since you can't go to Slytherin and won't go to Gryffindor, then… RAVENCLAW"

Sharon felt instinctively betrayed. Bitterly putting the hat down, she turned around to face Cecilia and saw that the blonde-haired girl had a glassy expression on her face. Looking up, her gaze met with a pair of blue eyes behind half-moon spectacles belonging to an old man with a long white beard. He smiled at her, but Professor Granger urged her to go away.

Sharon went to join the Ravenclaw table and the house sorting process continued.

Eventually, Cecilia's turn came as well.

"Another Malfoy, huh?," someone asked in the Ravenclaw table. Sharon didn't bother to look to see who it was.

"She's pretty", someone else said.

"Yeah… Don't trust her looks, though"

Sharon couldn't care less for their comments. She was too busy watching as her friend was selected. It struck her as particularly disturbing that Cecilia had such a pained expression on her face…

"RAVENCLAW," shouted the hat, and Sharon could hear expressions of surprise everywhere. Apparently, it was really uncommon for a Malfoy to be selected out of Slytherin…

As Cecilia proceeded to go to the Ravenclaw table, Slytherin students booed at her. Fortunately, Ravenclaw students took it upon themselves to shut them up by cheering even louder, and the other houses of Hogwarts immediately mirrored them, especially Gryffindor. Cecilia didn't look so pained anymore, but there was still something very tense about her.

"Are you alright?," asked Sharon as soon as Cecilia sat down in the table.

"Sure", she replied, making a faint attempt at a smile. "I hope you don't mind that I followed you here, do you?," she jokingly asked.

Sharon was surprised. "Of course not, why would I?" Cecilia simply shrugged.

"Welcome to the gang, girl," a dark-haired boy said. "You've just made history! I'm Jonas, by the way. Will you please marry me?" Cecilia gave him a weird look and the others burst out laughing. "I'm kidding, I'm just glad we caught a Malfoy here."

Maggie sat down by Cecilia's side, surprising both her and Sharon.

"When were you selected?," asked Sharon.

"Just now," Maggie casually said.

"But I didn't see you!," insisted the former.

"I was right after Cecilia," Maggie explained.

Sharon looked apologetic. "Oh… That would explain it"

Maggie chuckled at her. " Don't worry, I don't mind."

"So we all ended up in Ravenclaw, huh?," asked Cecilia, looking a lot less gloomy than before.

"Yeah, we did," replied Maggie.

"Well, what's done is done," concluded Cecilia with a resigned smile.

"Exactly! Besides, your family can't possibly get that mad at you, can they? I mean, it's just a house!," said Sharon, to which Cecilia sinisterly laughed.

"Just wait and see," she gloomily said.

"What do you mean?," Sharon asked.

Cecilia looked unsure, "I don't know yet, but we'll just have to wait"

"**Can I have your attention, please?**," someone asked. Sharon saw that it was the white bearded man from before, standing straight beside his seat.

"Who's he?," asked her in a whisper.

"Albus Dumbledore, Hogwarts' Headmaster," replied Cecilia.

"Does he never die?," innocently asked Margaret, receiving a few mean stares from people who'd heard her. "I didn't mean it that way!," she said, exasperated. "It's just that he's really, really old!"

"Watch out your words!," someone hissed. Margaret felt her cheeks burn in embarrassment.

"**Welcome to Hogwarts!**," said Dumbledore, appearing to be in very high spirits. "**I'm very glad to have you all here! It is not my wish to prevent you much longer from eating this delicious meal, however, I'd like to say a few words first.**" Everyone looked expectantly at him. "**And the words are: **_**pumpkin**_**, **_**juice**_**, **_**pumpkin juice**_** and **_**adventure**_**. Thank you, have a nice dinner!**" He sat again at his table, followed by an enthusiastic uproar of applause from the students.

Sharon was slightly perplexed. "Wow, that was…"

"Really, really strange?," asked Maggie.

"Absolutely amazing?," asked Cecilia in an excited tone.

"A mixture of both," concluded Cecilia, softly chuckling. Her eyes widened in amazement as food appeared everywhere and people started serving their plates.

The rest of the evening was spent eating and happily talking to each others. Before leaving to sleep, though, the students still had time to sing the school's hymn and listen to a few more words from Dumbledore regarding school issues, but by that time, Sharon was already so sleepy that she could barely hear a thing anymore.

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**Author's Notes: **First off, I should adress something that has been bothering me for the last couple of days. As you know, the Harry Potter series takes place in the United Kingdom, so I assume that the English spoken in the story should be British English. The things is that, even though I'm supposed to have learned British English at school, I'm a lot more acquainted with North-American English, which means that I'll be using "Americanized" speech in this fanfiction. Therefore, all I want to say is _please_, do excuse me for this and try not to take this little detail too seriously, 'k? ^_^' Thank you!

As for the chapter itself, I'm having some trouble writing down this story because I don't want it to sound neither too rushed nor too long, especially given that it features quite a large number of original characters and I know that, usually, readers run away from those. While I don't want to write excessively about my own characters so I won't be, like, imposing them to the public, it is important that you get to know them because, otherwise, it simply won't work. In the end, it's all up to my competence as a writer, so I'll try to do my best. :-)

Now, I'd like to thank Fojos and Julienne Black for taking the time to review. ^_^ That really means a lot to me!

Next chapter should come within a week.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything that is J. K. Rowling's own creation and I bear no monetary purposes. Do not sue me.

~ Cláudia Cel'arte / Aaminah


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